A/N: Now I've got all my angsty stuff out the way, I can happily go, "La, la, la, I'm not listening, there's no 'storm' coming." And churn out a random mini-adventure with hints of TenRose. Anyway, I need to cling to the happy times as best I can. So I'm going to see if I can get this whole story out in one week. Before… you know.
Please see what you think….
Disclaimer: Yeah, you guessed it; not mine.
"I don't believe this," said the Doctor, shaking his head, "One hundred years into your future and you can't even buy a decent portion of chips. Pitiful progress. I expected more from your lot, you know."
"It's not like I had anything to do with it," protested Rose, "Anyway, I think these chips are alright. I mean, they're not what they were, but they're still edible."
The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her, "Rose, these chips are healthy."
Rose stared at him and then sighed.
"I know, I know, but if you just eat it and forget that it's healthy, it's really not too bad."
"But I can't!" moaned the Doctor, "I eat them and I know that they're going to do me good. It's all wrong. Besides, I have a more highly defined sense of taste than you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Rose, "Enough with the 'superior species' thing. Why don't we give the chips a miss for a while?"
"Maybe," considered the Doctor, "Still think it's twisted to make chips healthy. I mean, once you get rid of the wicked pleasure and the painful guilt afterwards, what do you have left?"
"Alright," laughed Rose, "would you stop going on about it? Once we're done here, you can take us back to 2006 and we can go get some proper chips. Till then, you can tell me what we're doing here."
The Doctor threw his unfinished chips into a passing robotic bin and brightened considerably.
"Well, I wasn't actually intending to land here,"
"What's new?" asked Rose and he shot her an offended look
He continued: "But it seems that the TARDIS made her own decisions and she was following a distress signal emitting from this general area. Some alien life form is calling out for help."
Rose quickly finished her chips and she threw the packet at a bin - which caught it deftly and thanked her.
"Ok, Doctor," she said, inelegantly rubbing her hands on her jeans, "you say the signal is coming from 'this general area'. How do we find it?"
"Don't know," said the Doctor, cheerfully, "We'll just look around, shall we? I think it's market day, judging by the position of the sun."
Rose shook her head at him, grinning and linking her arm through his, they set off, "Ok, Mr Impressive."
"Am I still impressive?" he asked, delightedly.
"You've always been impressive," said Rose, "But don't let that go to your head." She laughed at his incredibly smug smile, "Come on, Doctor, shopping."
"So long as it's market shopping," replied the Doctor, suspiciously, "I am never going to into Topshop with you again. No matter how much you plead. No matter how ruined your top is."
"Don't worry," laughed Rose, "we'll just go make friends with a few stall tenders. It'd be a good way to find stuff out, don't you think?"
"Domestic," said the Doctor grimly.
"You love it really," said Rose, giving his arm an affectionate squeeze.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
"What do you think?" asked Rose, emerging from the hanging clothes, holding the skirt up against her, "Do you like it?"
The Doctor looked up from where he had been waiting and glared at the skirt. "It's a bit short, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" pouted Rose, "I think it's fine."
"Well, I think Queen Victoria would disagree. And not very practical, is it?" said the Doctor, "How are you supposed to do any running in that?"
"Maybe I won't do any running," said Rose, thoughtfully, "Maybe I'll wear it when you take me out sometime."
The Doctor coughed, quickly looking away to the guy tending the stall who had been following Rose around.
"What do you think?" the Doctor asked him.
"Gorgeous," said the stall tender, "And between you and me, I think your bird's got the legs to pull it off."
"Right," said the Doctor, scowling, "Right. Great."
"You're not going to be able to keep the guys from her, when she wears that." continued the vendor, conspiratorially.
"You hear that, Rose?" asked the Doctor.
"Yeah," answered Rose, blushing happily.
"Good. We're not buying it."
"What? I thought he said that it looked ok..."
"Well, if that man's words are anything to go by, the skirt would turn you into a pretty-boy magnet. And that is the last thing we need right now."
Rose looked offended, but was secretly delighted.
"A bit possessive, is he?" asked the stall tender, "Don't blame him, love," he continued, winking at her.
Rose laughed, and twirled a strand of hair with her fingers. The stall tender carried on talking and Rose listened with fascination.
"Come on, Rose," said the Doctor, who had been standing slightly apart, but was watching the proceedings with growing horror, "There's a stall over there with some nice mobile phone covers. Why don't we go look over there?"
"Hang on," answered Rose, "Mark here was just telling me about some funny disturbances that have been going on round by the town hall."
"Is that so?" asked the Doctor, feigning indifference, but releasing his grip on Rose's arm, "Like what?"
"Apparently, there are reports of girls disappearing right outside."
"What, literally disappearing? As in vanishing into thin air?" scoffed the Doctor.
"No," took up Mark, "Just at night, some people swear they seen a girl be pulled off the road, into the town hall. But in the morning, there ain't no sign of nothing. Not even any evidence that anyone had ever been in the hall. But the girls never come home."
"That doesn't sound good," commented the Doctor to Rose.
"No," agreed Mark, "And if I were you, I'd keep your pretty girlfriend away from there."
"Thanks," said the Doctor, "I'll do that. Come on, Rose, we'd better go."
"Bye, Mark," called Rose, over her shoulder and winking, "Thanks and everything."
Mark smirked back.
"Liar," said Rose, happily, comfortably linking her arm through the Doctor's again.
"Why am I a liar?" asked the Doctor, slightly baffled.
"Because you have no intention of keeping me away from the town hall. In fact, we're heading there now."
"I don't know," said the Doctor, seriously, stopping to stare at Rose. "By the sounds of things, a large number of pretty young girls have been disappearing, so maybe it's not such a good idea for you to go there."
"Are you calling me 'pretty'?" asked Rose, playfully, her tongue in her cheek.
"Listen, Rose," said the Doctor, hoping to God that he wasn't flushing, "I just don't think it will be safe."
Rose stared at him, then burst out laughing.
"Doctor," she said, "When has it ever been safe? And when have you ever been so worried about safety? Let's just go."
The Doctor sighed, and trailed after her.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
"Right," said the Doctor, as they marched round to the back of the town hall, "A pretty regular town hall, in a frankly, pretty regular town. I'd hate to live here, actually. Not much going on - not so much as a bowling alley," He paused for a second, "But then, I'd pretty much hate to live-live anywhere. Anyway, not a particularly old building, so not too much attraction for that. All it's got going for it is…" He aimed the Sonic Screwdriver at the wall, "It's made out of limestone from Planet 606."
"Is that bad?" asked Rose, watching him.
"Depends," said the Doctor, crouching down near the wall, "If it comes from the quarry which was hit by a meteor from Planet 606 about fifty years ago, then I'd say it's nothing too much to worry about. But if it was built by an alien life form, with their own special rock, then yes, it would be quite bad."
"So which is it?" prompted Rose.
"Don't know yet," admitted the Doctor, "Shall we go in?"
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
The Doctor and Rose surveyed the inside of the hall suspiciously.
Rose shivered. "This brings back really bad memories of rubbish discos."
"That's funny," said the Doctor, frowning in concentration, "I can't get any kind of reading on the signal source because it's so badly distorted by the limestone. That's either coincidence or really, really clever."
"I'm going to go check out the kitchen," announced Rose.
"Wondered how long it'd take you," grinned the Doctor, making his way around the edge of the room, Sonic Screwdriver in hand.
"For that," admonished Rose, sternly, "I'm not going to share the chocolate biscuits when I find them."
"You never normally do," muttered the Doctor, pretending to be very interested in the skirting board.
The kitchen turned out to be a typical, pokey town hall kitchen. Everything painted off-white, with practical, chrome taps. The kettle seemed to work, but Rose couldn't find any teabags.
She started rooting around in the lower cupboards, looking for the economy pack of chocolate biscuits. She managed to find a big steel pan, a couple of packets of cereal, but no chocolate biscuits.
"Rubbish," she commented to herself, "First healthy chips, then no chocolate biscuits."
In the last cupboard was a green radio.
"That's weird," coomented Rose, to herself, "Why would you put a radio in a bottom cupboard?"
She knelt down so she could get a closer look in the cupboard. She tried to pull the radio out, but it wouldn't move at all.
Rose leaned in a little further, blinking when she noticed the greenish glow coming from behind the radio.
She had just opened her mouth to call for the Doctor, when the green light enclosed her and she disappeared right inside the cupboard.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
"Ah," said the Doctor, as he heard footsteps behind him, "See you've managed to tear yourself away from the kitchen. Still no luck here, I'm afraid." He was kneeling on the floor, his glasses firmly on and a frown of concentration on his face, "Although I have found a rather nice pair of earrings which someone has dropped. I was wondering; do you think I should get my ears pierced? Nothing too fancy, or girly, mind you. I'm not sure."
"Rose?" he asked, turning round when he got no reply, "Rose, what are you doing?"
He watched in astonishment as Rose emerged from the back of the small stage at the far end of the hall and gracefully started to tap dance.
"Well," said the Doctor, hesitantly, "I must admit, that's impressive. Where did you learn to do that?"
She merely continued with her dance.
"Rose?" he asked, when she still didn't reply.
He stood up, and watched properly, not quite sure what to do in the face of Rose's sudden passion for dancing.
"Rose," he said, "I don't want to be rude or anything - I mean, you're very good - but we've kind of got other things to think about."
He had just started walking towards her end of the hall, when a hole opened up in the middle of the stage and Rose gracefully tap danced her way into it.
There we go. Pleath review?